India, Aug. 20 -- In a corporate culture often obsessed with polished English, one Mumbai entrepreneur decided to break the mould. Kanan Bahl took a calculated leap when interviewing a candidate from a Tier-2 city who possessed outstanding technical abilities but struggled to articulate himself in English. Rather than letting language barriers dismiss genuine talent, Bahl hired him for a client-facing role and encouraged him to speak comfortably in Hindi. Today, that candidate stands out as Bahl's most successful hire.

"I interviewed a guy from a Tier-2 city whose English was terrible. But he was too good with his sample task. I was still overthinking about hiring him because his role involved facing the clients. I still hired him!" Bahl...